The Christian Music Industry or "CCM"

I have given this issue a lot of thought lately about how christianity has evolved in the past century, mainly the issue on christian music.

Ive seen people throw away some of their "christian" cd's because of a christian artists mainstream success, or because they have "sold out" to the secular community. My take on this is, it is our duty as believers in christ to share God's love and message to the lost, whether through our actions or through sharing. So how is catering to the christian community by making "our" music outreach to nonbelievers? In the past few decades we christians have created our own subculture to seperate ourselves from the "Worldly Society". Im sure you have already caught on to my excessive amount of quotation marks, but its to prove a point. Dont get me wrong im not bashing any christian artist, only giving insight. If you play in a praise and worship band, or are a gospel artist etc..., and play sold out venues to lead other believers in worship, by all means continue, There is not a better feeling than surrenduring to christ through worship, its the next thing to heaven to me . What im trying to say is that, it is wrong to codemn a christian who dosnt necessarily play in a christian band or music in general. Here's a quote from one of the members of the band Mute Math,

"We've always conditioned our show universally, and (we're) just trying to speak to human beings; (we're) not really conditioning it down to Christians, and that's what the Christian music industry does. It's for a certain sect of people. I don't have anything against that--I'm one of them--but I don't want to taper it just for that," said Meany.

Basically what he's saying is that he dosnt feel the need to play for christian audiences all of the time, Mute Math is an example of believers who play music just for the love of music. If you really think about it, when you play in a band purely for the sake of music, you have an ultimate freedom espression, you can play anything you want . This is because whenever you sign a contract with say...... i dont know a prodominately "secular" label, you can pretty much sing about whatever you want without having to feel obligated to sing about God ALL of the time. No one in this world feels like praising God everyday, its just reality, in life there are ups and downs in which we must endure, living a life for christ isnt always easy, so is it wrong to sing about those ups and downs sometimes and sing about joy other times? Take a look at Psalms or Song of Songs. " My father, Why have you forsaken me?", sound familiar?,This dosnt sound like a praise and worship song to me. In Song of Songs, solomon talks pretty vividly about his love for his wife and her physical features, Most christians would blush if they heard a song like this. The Almost and Switchfoot are other examples of this. If i can remember correctly, Switchfoot is signed with Warner Brothers and The Almost is cosigned with Warner Bros. and Tooth and Nail. The Almost has made a quick success simply because of the mainstream exposure, but Aaron Gillespie does not shy away from proclaiming Jesus's name in some of his songs, two in fact. I can say from experience that lost people often respond more to how a christian walks than talks. It is very possible to uphold a witness while in a lost enviroment.


The bible says glorify Christ in everything we do, so can we sing a regular song about life and still be communicating with God?, i say we can. Is it wrong to sing about pain and sorrow sometimes?, i dont think so. Can i play football to the best of my ability and still glorify God?, i say yes. I mean whats next......."christian football"........." Oh yes sir, i run a "christian" automotive business". Maybe we should stop trying to seperate ourselves from these subcultures ( without creating ones of our own of course), and just focus on the big picture, Jesus.



By the way feel free to give your thoughts, im open to criticism. If you recognize a flaw in some of my thoughts by all means say something, im not here to try to justify anything, only share my convictions.